Category: After Petroculture?

By Iman Saif and Hafsa Najdan

Once again, we will first begin with a quick recap of our previous blog post in order to refresh our readers’ and then we will go forth with our blog post for today. In our last blog post, we applied the secondary source of Hannes Bergthaller essay, “ Fossil Freedoms: The Politics of Emancipation and the End of Oil “ to our case study of petroculture and petromodernity within Qatar. We established the myriad of consequences associated with the culture of petrodependency and the subsequent double-edged sword of moving towards petromodernity; the loss of development, wealth and status are enough to persuade many countries to look the other way in the face of petrodependency. It is this fact that allows us once again to admire Qatar’s decision and strategies (outlined in the first blog post!) to move towards petromodernity. For this blog post, we will be applying the concept of derangements of scale to petromodernity and petrodependency in order to emphasize the importance of this case study to our audience.

The concept of derangements of scale is one that is fascinating as it is subtly intertwined with all aspects of our lives. Let us first establish what exactly the concept of derangements constitutes. Derangements of scale refer to the perception of events on different scales- mainly the subjective, intellectual dismantling in conversations regarding the environment. An environmental issue may be categorized by an individual concerned with his daily habits and ease of convenience as something that is of little value but the same issue could be perceived as a moral call to action by an environmental activist. This then shows us the different “scales” of perception and introduces lack of clarity and reduces subsequent action and value in the masses- essentially the demarcation of effects and the general derangement of scale.

Evidence of this phenomenon can be found in modern societies’ projection of material condition as eternally available (i.e fossil fuels and oil) and brings forth dependency on these resources (i.e petrodependency). Though there have been attempts to bring awareness to issues of petrodependency, the method of conveying urgency and call to action, has been largely unsuccessful due to unrealistic derangements of scale. Countless times have we been told to “walk, rather than use public and private transport” , “ turn off all lights when not in use” and so forth but the question of the extent of its effects remains in the back of our minds. After all, do we not disregard these calls to action with a snort of mockery and continue about our day? However, have we once bothered to contemplate the matter of unity in regards to encouraging change and reform?

It is with this final question of reflection we ask to our audience, that we hope we have given sufficient indication of the importance behind Qatar’s petromodernity goals. Rather than choosing to stay content within a culture of petrodependency wherein there was indeed, temporary closure and false assurance of the limitless quantities of fossil fuels and oil resources to sustain our current modes of living, Qatar actively chose to shed its perception of petrodependency on a national and individual scale and confront the scale of human actions in the spatial world and it’s plethora of intellectual, societal and ethical containments.

Work Used:

Timothy Clarke, “Derangements of Scale” , 2020

By Iman Saif and Hafsa Najdan

For our previous blog post, we focused on the essay “After Oil”. We broke down this source and then applied it to our case study. We focused on how the use of analyzing this source could further contextualize the imminent need for Qatar’s clean and distant separation from its state of petromodernity and petro-dependence. In today’s blogspot, similar to our previous post, we will be analyzing the essay “FOSSIL FREEDOMS: The Politics of Emancipation and the End of Oil” by Hannes Bergthaller. This article, in contrast, provides insight on another issue regarding the actual consequences of petro-dependency. For a state actor on an international and domestic level, reaching the status of being petromodern is a double-edged sword. Weath, status, and development is gained at the cost of the obvious ecological and environmental determinants, but also, in particular, leaving behind a world lived without petroculture infrastructure permeating everything.

Bergthaller cleverly revises an analogy by President George W. Bush between the macro level of premodernity crazes and the micro relatability of addiction. This analogy is somewhat flawed, she argues, because addiction entails that the affected body can, through whatever measures, emerge from the confines of the illness relatively unscathed. It is a simple “character flaw”, rather than a centuries old ailment with deep roots. The essence of this analogy, however, holds enough weight to truly resonate with the idea that petromodernity reaps the same consequences as substance abuse (Bergthaller 425). It also highlights the grim reality of the fact that petromodernity removes a certain level of liberty from the alleged victim. A loss of autonomy with states chasing the oil-fueled high, private corporations “as generating large quantities of CO2”, and people with their lifestyles, no longer able to reach certain levels of self-sufficiency. Individuality has become an impossible goal (Bergthaller 425). The entire chase to reach petromodernity is meant to lead to a path of liberation. Liberation from poverty and low status, liberation from old tradition to urbanization. Yet this facet of liberty is only a fallacy. “What is freedom”, Bergthaller writes, “if it depends on something that is not free?” Self-reliance demotes only to reliance, if “there is no self” (Bergthaller 426). Essentially, petromodernity puts state actors on a sparkly, looming pedestal with a rapidly upward crumbling base. 

It would be elementary to completely trivialize advancements of energy transitions and would reflect a lack of true knowledge on the severity of the issue. Qatar, being an actor with relatively sizable oil reserves, is a country at peak petromodernity. While they are making efforts to transition to natural gasses, it may stand to be fruitless as, while abundant in their reserves,  they are transitioning towards another non-renewable resource to depend their countries’ vitality on. If we were to, in short, take the oil away right now, if we were to remove social, economic, and cultural infrastructures in places that thrive on petromodernity, where would Qatar be? I ask this question in hopes of putting Qatar in all of its black gold, technologically-utopian glory, in perspective, rather than over-simplifying the depth of the problem at hand. The clock is ticking for Qatar, like many petro modern countries, and if they choose not to separate themselves from this status through means such as ones suggested in our previous blog post, the problem, with thorough grimness “if only given enough time, will solve itself” (Bergthaller 429).

By Iman Saif and Hafsa Najdan

In our last blog post, we briefly discussed Qatar’s plans for increased sustainability, among which the unique and entirely fundamental aspect of eliminating petromodernity is central to Qatar’s visions for development. This goal of eliminating petromodernity is essentially the prohibition and eventual independence from the reliance on cheap, harmful energy sources, and we have briefly outlined some methods on implementing this vision. In this blog post, to further increase our readers’ understanding of the culture of petromodernity and the subsequent need for eliminating this widespread culture, we will be applying and analyzing the secondary source, “After Oil” (Badia et al.) to our case study of petromodernity in Qatar.

In “After Oil”, there is an emphasis put upon the importance of energy transition through social transition- a core concept that the very possibility of reform and elimination of petromodernity culture throughout the globe is reliant upon. It is through social commitments developed over time that the genesis of petromodernity is introduced- a culture that actively influences and dictates the human quality of life under an economy of fossil fuels. Indeed, it would be for our own benefit that we do not stop at the mere acknowledgement of the overbearing role of fossil fuels in our lives but rather, we move past that initial acknowledgement and actively work towards replacing and eliminating this lifestyle built upon the minefields of fossil fuels in order to actively trigger transition and reform.

That is not to say that we have to outright give up our basic human needs and collective desires, but rather, we come together as a community to build a social framework that takes them into account and simultaneously, takes our surrounding environments into account as well. To achieve this objective, is once again, to have the awareness of how oil and fossil fuels shape our livelihood- our desires, identities, practices, consumption patterns, etc. It is this self-awareness that often leads to the common “impasse”, as stated in the text. A situation that is created from the seemingly lack of options and practices that are blocked by forces beyond our human conception and “invites paralysis and reinforces the status quo” (Badia et al., p.16). This then brings us to the second factor outlined in “After Oil”, incumbent in the objective of eliminating petromodernity- Intentional Transition.

Intentional transition consists of the reframing of the petromodernity issue in a humanistic, environmentalist manner that actively takes into account the general public’s opinions and thoughts. It is built on the foundations of intention, agency and the acknowledgement of our values and human desires. Intentional transition also consists of attestations to change in practices and relations of and with oil, fossil fuels and energy sources, in which encouragement and camaraderie is a central element that sustains the possibility of transition and elimination of petromodernity.